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CZECH REPUBLIC
Government and recent political history
The Czechoslovak State was a communist country from 1948 until 1989. A legal separation of the Czech and Slovak Republics took place in 1992, and the Czech Republic, a multiparty parliamentary democracy headed by a president, was established on 1 January 1993.
Population
The estimated population is 10.2 million (2002), and about 65% live in urban areas. The population consists of 94% ethnic Czechs, 1.9% Slovaks, 0.5% Poles and 0.4% Germans. In 1994, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births for the first time since 1918, and the population is continuing to decline. This seems to suggest an ageing of the population The Czech Republic is one of the healthiest in central and eastern Europe (CEE).
Average life expectancy and infant/maternal mortality
Life expectancy is 72.2 years for men and 78.8 years for women (2002), and infant mortality is 4.15 per thousand live births (2001). These data show that the Czech Republic is above the average for most CEE countries, but falls below average when compared to other western European countries.
Leading causes of death
Diseases of the circulatory system (especially ischemic heart disease) remain by far the most significant cause of death, affecting 456 per 100 000 people (2002). While still high, this figure has dropped by more than 30% in the past 15 years. The standardized, or average, death rate is higher than in any European Union (EU) country.
Recent history of the health care system
In 1990 and 1991, a dramatic liberalization of the previously centralized Semasko health care system took place, and the system began moving towards a compulsory social insurance model, with a number of insurers financing health care providers on the basis of contracts.
Reform trends
Reform decisions were made as a result of important interests in the late 1980s and early 1990s, namely efficiency and raising the social status of providers, leading to fee-for-service reimbursement and privatization. However, resulting problems with these decisions ? such as over-utilization of services, dissatisfaction among health professionals, financial deficits and inadequate regulation ? point to new challenges that need to be addressed. There are measures being considered to address these, for example gate-keeping, introducing diagnosis related groups
(DRGs) payments for hospitals and reducing the number of specialists.
Source:
www.euro.who.int. (Observatory)
www.uzis.cz
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